托福口语语速和节奏的科学训练

很多同学发现自己在托福考场上表达的语速难以控制好。要不就是出现时间到了而没有说完的情况，要不就是说得太快，时间没到却无话可说。那么如何在平时做好训练呢?要从“读”的速度培养起。

一般而言，对于关键词和关键句应该慢读，做到充分理解，牢牢把握;而对非关键词和非关键句应加快阅读速度，留出多于时间，用以反复阅读重点句或归纳总结。例子如下:

例1：

A lot of people think that cultural anthropology is just about studying the special and strange aspects of a society, but anthropologists are also interested in the aspects of life that seems so ordinary that the people in the society think they are not significant.

在读的过程中我们很容易找到关键词,如：cultural anthropology, the special and strange aspects of life, but, anthropologists, interested, ordinary, significant。这些关键词反映了此句的主要信息：许多人认为文化人类学就是研究特殊而奇怪的社会现象，但人类学家有时还对一些人们认为不重要的、看起来很普通的生活现象感兴趣。通过分析关键词，我们又发现but这个具有转折意义的连接词,它向我们显示了此句的后半句才是整个句子的核心部分，它提示我们阅读时应更加留心阅读后半句的关键词，提炼关键信息。因此，我们可以很肯定地确认此句最重要的意义应该是：Anthropologists are also interested in the aspects of life so ordinary that people don’t think they are significant.并且也可以很肯定地预测，如有下文，也一定是就后半句所反映的核心信息继续论述，而不是前半句的。这样，在阅读时，我们就会把目光把注意力更加有目的地集中在后半句的关键词上，而对那些附加修饰、说明的部分，如：修饰people的a lot of 、in the society就可以快速阅读，甚至略去不读，因为它并不影响我们对中心意思的理解与把握。

例2：

Smell and Memory

Scientists are producing an increasing number of findings on the links between smell and memory. The most prominent scientist in this field is Dr. Alan Hirsch, a US neurologist who specializes in the treatment of patients who have lost their sense of smell or taste. He believes that the memories that certain smells bring back to people are not actually as important as the emotions that are associated with the smells. He also argues that our minds filter these emotions in a positive way, making past times seem better than they perhaps were.

首先,我们注意到这个段落的题目是Smell and Memory，我们从题目中还得知了中心思想。托福口语语速和节奏的科学训练因此我们可以得知本段主要论述的应是smell and memory之间的联系，由此找到了关键词语the links between smell and memory(在段首)，而能说明它们之间关系的句子又是最后一句。所以，这个段落的核心信息是：Some smells remind us of a previous thing in a way that is better than the real experience.由此判定，本段的首尾部分都需细心地、稍慢地阅读，而对最著名的;专门治疗何种病人的这样相对次要的句子就可以加快阅读速度。